Page 7 - Arabian Gulf Intellegence

INTRODUCTION

by
Robin Bidwell

Anyone working on the nineteenth-century history of Eastern Arabia and the Gulf or
even East Africa comes across frequent references to the Bombay Selections, volume
xxiv. Its material was used as a major source by Kelly in his Britain and the Persian
Gulf; Bayly Winder in his Saudi Arabia in the Nineteenth Century, Abu Hakima in his
Modem History of Kuwait and Coupland in East Africa and its Invaders. It served as
the basic source for Lorimer in his Gazetteer. It'contains, however, a great deal of
information that Lorimer omitted, presumably for reasons of space. The history of
Abu Dhabi which Lorimer dealt with in just over four pages here receives thirty-four,
and the history of Dubai between 1833 and 1853 which Lorimer covers in three
paragraphs is treated in this volume in ten pages.
This volume is a collection of reports received by the Government of Bombay and
was designed to serve as a reference book for officers working in the area It was
printed in Bombay in 1856 and although the print run is not known, it must have been
extremely small or much of it must have been lost In the seventeen years that I have
been responsible for the library of the Middle East Centre at Cambridge, I have
never known of a copy offered for sale despite an assiduous watch on antiquarian
booksellers and their catalogues.
The period covered is one of great historical importance. It is the era which one can
say began in 1805 with the departure from India of the Marquess of Wellesley who
had made the East India Company the predominant power in the Sub-continent, with
the Mughal Emperor and the other leading rulers acknowledging British para-
mountcy. Communications between London and this source of power and wealth
were of overriding importance because decisions had constantly to be taken which
affected the standing of Britain in the world. The traditional route around the Cape of
Good Hope was very slow and as late as 1828 Lord EUenborough, placed in charge of
Indian affairs at Westminster, found his department dealing with matters that had
arisen two years previously and he decreed that one year should be sufficient to send
a letter and receive a reply. The alternative was overland transport through the
Middle East It was possible to send correspondence to Alexandria, overland to Suez
and thence down the Red Sea but, apart from frequent political difficulties, the Red